Phxnolx swung his chair around and faced the drone control console. He tapped a pair of commands and the drone system’s readiness sprang onto the screen. “Drone One is prepped and fully charged. Navigation coordinates are programmed in. Battery fully charged and all systems indicate nominal. Drone is ready for launch.”

  The cabin swayed as the vehicle stopped. Behind the crew compartment, a pair of small doors opened accordion style. A white and orange drone lifted out, held aloft by four ducted rotors. The segmented body of the drone belied its Velox origin. Sampling probes fit tightly against the main body to minimize drag. The fans pivoted, and the robot flashed ahead of the terrain vehicle, disappearing into the bright midday sky in seconds.

  “Telemetry is nominal. Video scan active. Arrival in three minutes.” Phxnolx shared a window of the video feed to the other screens. “Schedule for the sampling plan is fifteen minutes.”

  Gareth gestured at the screen. “Then we’ll know what the take will be.”

  “The take?” asked Phxnolx.

  “Something my grandmother used to say. She always meant that it was how much of something she was getting. Usually when she was attempting to hustle someone in gambling cards.” Gareth stopped talking as Phxnolx held up a single digit and touched another control.

  “Arrival. Commencing sampling pattern. . .and now everything is on automatic. We wait.”

  Minutes ticked by in silence as the drone worked. Slowly, the data trickled in. “Iron and aluminum? Odd combination. Usually, you do not find ferrous and non-ferrous materials in the same ore deposit. Now reading traces of chromium as well.”

  “Are you certain that the drone is checking the ground and not itself? Those combinations sound a lot like our hull.”

  Phxnolx opened a second window and ran the drone self-check program. “Everything is in normal parameters. Nothing out of the ordinary. The samples are definitely from the surface of the planet.”

  “Okay.” Garth waved a hand in the air. “We’ll wait for the sampling to complete and then go take a physical look at what the wonder drone has discovered.”

  The drone completed its sample minutes later. “That was quick. . .Ah, small deposit, less than twelve meters square. Sarah, transferring you the coordinates.”

  “Roger. Locked in. Sahn, once the drone returns, all you need to do is follow the arrow,” Sarah stated and pointed at the windscreen. A yellow carrot cursor appeared in Sahnuli’s HUD, pointing away from the terrain vehicle and to the left.

  Five minutes later, the insectoid drone flashed past the vehicle and settled back into its transport cradle. The safety doors slid shut with a quiet metallic thunk.

  “Drone indicates connection to cradle and charging. All connections are green. We are safe to move.”

  Sahnuli advanced the throttle, and the electric motors whined.

  “Exterior radiation levels have greatly decreased. Average reading is now three-point six C/kg. Not safe to walk around without the suits but within acceptable exploration limits.” Phxnolx’s antenna danced in interest. “That is a reduction of five-point eight C/kg in the mile. Analysis is that we are exiting one area of bombardment.”

  “That’s good news, since it’s likely we’ll need to look at this next ore patch before we begin mining,” Sarah stated with relief.

  “We have arrived,” Sahnuli stated breathily as he stopped the terrain vehicle. “I think there’s no need for all of us to suit up for this exploration. Does anyone volunteer?”

  Sarah spoke up just before Gareth. He closed his mouth and waited. “I’ll go. I haven’t had much of a chance to stretch my legs so this would be nice. Plus, I’m curious about the ore here since it is a mixture of metals not normally found together.”

  “Very well. You may go then, Sarah. Gareth?”

  “Yeah, I’d like to go as well. Perhaps the drone’s samples were contaminated. . .”

  Phxnolx’s frustration reddened his carapace. His rapid chittering interrupted Gareth. “There were no indications of cross or previous contamination. The design is robust.”

  “I didn’t say that there had been contamination, just a possibility. Mostly I’m with Sarah on the unusualness of this grouping.”

  “Very well. Gareth and Sarah will make the excursion and determine the situation with the ore prior to mining operations.”

  The terrain vehicle’s treads were slightly taller than the average Thyrnn, which allowed the access ramp’s placement to shelter between them. As the ramp lowered, the midday sunlight sparkled off the bright orange, white, and cyan environmental suits. Sarah and Gareth carefully stepped from the overhang of the mining equipment and into the brilliant light.

  Sarah checked the screen on her suit’s arm. She pointed ahead and to the left of the vehicle. “Ore is right over there, per the coordinates. Slaving HUDs.” A bright blue ring appeared inside both of their helmets.

  The two shuffled their way over to the coordinates, heavy dust swirling around their feet with each step, watching as the blue circle contracted until it compressed to a dot. There was nothing remarkable about the spot of terrain. It looked the same as the rest of the sunbaked landscape. Gareth extracted a sensor pick and pressed it into the ground. “Silicon, carbon, mica, more silicon,” he muttered as he extracted the pick and moved to another spot.

  Sarah watched him for a moment, then moved slightly sideways to a tiny dune of heaped dust. She scraped her boot across the small hill. A small bit of metal caught the light, glinting strongly. Sarah dropped to her knees, using her hands to brush more of the silica particles away. “Gareth, I might have found something!”

  Gareth turned and walked back towards her. “Like what?”

  “Something metallic. It’s just under the dirt here. I think I can...”

  She screamed as the ground below her collapsed and she tumbled into the hole, a rain of sand and rock following her into the darkness.

  “Sarah!” Garth raced to the edge of the collapsed area, arms wheeling as more of the edge collapsed. He backpedaled and continued to call. There was no response. Fresh torn soil marked the ragged edge of the sinkhole, reddish brown dust dissipating in the afternoon breeze. One moment Sarah had been wiping away at something, the next the ground had opened below her and she had plummeted down. He aimed his flashlight into the hole but couldn’t see anything through the haze. Thick dust hung in the air, obscuring sight.

  “Terrain vehicle, Gareth. Sarah has fallen into a sinkhole. Contact base and let them know what has happened. We need all the climbing equipment we have and prep the med kits. Fox, can you get any readings on her?”

  The Velox’s sharply clipped tones were muted, a sign that his mandibles quivered in frustration. “No readings. I am not sure if that is due to a damaged computer or where she is located.”

  “Great,” Gareth muttered as he continued to play his light over the opening.

  Gareth stayed put, continuing to alternate between calling for Sarah and shining his light into the hole while Sahnuli and Phxnolx gathered rescue gear. The group had trained for the possibility of a member getting hurt or the need to traverse a steep slope. They had not trained on sinkhole rescues.

  Phxnolx’s shadow fell over the area as the Velox arrived. He was carrying various cables and other climbing gear.

  “Sahnuli, I am slaving the drone to my suit. I will send it down into the shaft while we set up the climbing harnesses and anchors.” Insectoid fingers typed a command into his suit’s touchscreen. Moments later, the two of them heard the drone lifting out of the holding compartment. Phxnolx copied the video feed to the others’ screens. He quickly programmed a basic search and avoidance program. Since he could not be sure that their radios would penetrate the rock, the drone could enter the shaft and fly itself slowly to the bottom. Behind him, Gareth and Sahnuli spread out the climbing gear. Phxnolx verified the drone’s commands one more time, then set it in motion.

  The pair worked carefully to set up the anchoring and climbing equipment as the large drone slipped past them and descended into the newly formed hole.

  Sarah came to with a start. Her gasp of surprise followed immediately with groans of pain. The sudden movement had jarred parts of her body that were informing her of damage; mainly through pain. She blinked to clear her vision, wishing she could actually wipe her arm across her eyes to clear them. Unfortunately, the suit’s design prohibited such actions.

  As she focused, she realized there were several alarms sounding, and the in-helmet radio was producing nothing but static. She blinked several more times, finally getting her eyes to focus properly.

  “Suit, silence alarms,” she croaked.

  “Warning,” came the suit’s female Velox perfect voice, “alarm conditions not cleared. Verify request please.”

  Sarah took a deep breath and forced it out. “Suit, verify silence alarms.”

  “Alarms silenced. Emergency protocols will restart alarm in fifteen minutes.”

  Dust covered most of her visor. She raised her left hand and wiped some of it from the helmet. The sand fell away, showing a slightly streaked and scratched surface, with no cracks. Sarah released the breath she had been unconsciously holding. A damaged visor would have complicated the situation even more.

  Faint light filtered down through the dusty haze, barely illuminating the area where she laid on her back, her legs twisted under her uncomfortably. She vaguely remembered tumbling and bouncing as she fell, but the thoughts were fuzzy. When she attempted to lever herself on her right arm, it collapsed under the pressure and she bit back a scream of agony. Panting, she lay back for several more minutes. Finally, she raised her left arm and examined her wrist display. The touchscreen, scratched and dirty from the fall but still readable, currently displayed a schematic of the suit with red patches indicating damage.

  “Alright,” Sarah spoke in a thready voice to herself, “suit integrity appears fine. No signs of loss of pressure. Outside temperature is sixteen degrees lower than it was on the surface. Background radiation is below Arth normal.” She chuckled, her voice strengthening. “I guess that makes sense, since this cavern has probably been sealed off for several centuries. Maybe even from before the bombings.”

  Carefully she put the screen close to her right hand and was, with considerable pain, able to shift the screen to the diagnostics screen. “Primary and life support computer packs are non-responsive. Secondary lighting damaged. Secondary sensor pack non-responsive. Primary scrubber vented and unusable. Secondary scrubber at full load and operational.”

  She ran her left hand over the front of the environmental suit and could feel several broken sections of what had originally been a single large computer module. She looked at the screen again. “That explains those alarms,” Sarah stated as she painfully attempted to turn on the flashlight on her right arm. When she touched the switch, nothing happened. She carefully turned the arm with her left, biting back a yelp of pain as the right arm rotated. The lens of the flashlight had starred from a shard of rock lodged in it.

  “Figures. Alright Sarah. Time to get ourselves straightened out.”

  Cautiously, she shifted and wiggled until her right leg straightened. The left had remained stationary throughout her movements. She could feel the leg behind her, but could not move the lower section of the leg. She wiggled her toes. They moved freely and without pain. Whatever was preventing her movement had not damaged the leg. From this position, she could look down at herself. The coating of sand and dust dulled the suit’s colors. Carefully, she brushed as much of the sand and dust as possible away from her chest. She could tell as she uncovered the primary computer’s cover that it had taken the brunt of the impact. The case had cracked; broken completely through in at least two spots. Black carbon dust streaked her left glove. Based on that and the alarms she had silenced, the entire unit had likely shorted out.

  The faint illumination from above was enough to give her a sense of her surroundings, though she could not actually see the hole she had fallen through. The powdery dust hung in the air, diffusing the faint light into a ruddy glow. She strained her ears, listening for anything. There was silence outside her suit. Only the static from the radio greeted her. She swallowed reflexively.

  “Suit, emergency broadcast, all channels.”

  “Emergency protocols loaded. Ready,” replied the suit.

  “Mayday, mayday. This is navigator Sarah Everhart. To anyone who can hear me. Mayday.”

  She paused and waited for a response. Nothing. The static continued.

  “Mayday. . .mayday. Come on team, I’m alive and stuck down here.”

  Still no reply. Maybe if she reoriented herself, moved a bit, she could improve the radio’s reception. That was if the radio was actually sending and receiving.

  “Suit. . .pause broadcast.”

  “Emergency protocols active,” the generated voice of her suit countered. “Broadcast of last message will continue in two-minute intervals for the next thirty minutes unless you specify ending earlier. Do you wish to end broadcast?”

  “No.”

  “Continuing broadcast.” The suit fell silent while continuing to send out the radio signals.

  Sarah pushed herself up with her left arm and tested applying pressure to her right arm. The muscles screamed in protest, but the arm held her weight this time.

  “Okay. This is probably a sprain. Really nasty sprain, but not broken, thank goodness.” With her leg pinned, it was impossible to sit up.

  It took Sarah over ten minutes of shifting and scooting to get her body contorted into an L shape and point her receiver towards where she could now see the overhead opening.

  “Suit, new broadcast.”

  “Ready.”

  “Mayday, mayday. Navigator Sarah Everhart. Gareth, can you hear? Mayday.” She paused again.

  “Guys?” she croaked over the suit’s radio, hoping it still worked.

  Nothing. No response at all.

  She consulted the screen on her left arm again. According to the diagnostics, the radio was transmitting. A faint memory from a training course surfaced. Frequency affects distance through matter. The suit’s emergency system would broadcast on the primary and emergency channels, but it would not cycle through the less used options. Sarah tabbed through various menus until she found the radio frequency options. A few commands, and she had the system set up for simultaneous transmission on all available frequencies.

  “Suit, pause broadcast. Set for new broadcast.”

  “Listening.”

  “Mayday, mayday. This is Navigator Sarah Everhart. I am alive and stable. Left leg is pinned. Require assistance. Mayday, mayday.” She paused for fifteen seconds. “Send.”

  “New emergency broadcast commencing.”

  Sarah lay back, ensuring her helmet faced the overhead opening, watching and listening for any sign of rescue.

  Gareth had stayed near the hole, attempting to contact Sarah in any way possible. Several radio attempts had resulted in nothing, so now he was cupping his hands and yelling down into the hole. “Sarah, we are coming. Stay calm. The drone is also on its way. Keep trying to contact us.”

  Sahnuli stopped several feet from the edge of the sinkhole, running a hand-held ground penetrating radar sensor over the spot. “The ground here is sufficiently dense to accept the rooting of the climbing anchor.” He levered the large tube upright, the round opening sitting directly on the ground, then pressed the firing stud. A dull boom and more dust billowed. Sahnuli lifted the firing tube out of the way and verified the stability of the anchor. It failed to move, no matter how he pushed or pulled on it. “The anchor is firmly rooted. Attaching the harness ropes.”

  The climbing kit used braided single strand carbon filament rope and electrical micro winches for raising and lowering gear or people. The rope’s tensile strength measured in hundreds of tons per centimeter. If needed, the team could pull the terrain vehicle with the rope and have no fear of the rope parting. The winches, though not as powerful, were more than sufficient for carrying all four crew members, let alone one per winch. Each rope contained an integral communications cable in the center of the rope. This ensured the crew could maintain constant communications without relying on radio waves. Sahnuli climbed into the harness and connected the comms cable to his suit.

  “Communications check.”

  Phxnolx nodded and replied, “Good connection. Clear signal.”

  Sahnuli watched as Gareth second checked his harness. Garth flashed him a thumbs up. “Very well. One last review. Mining Operator Gareth and I will descend into the shaft. Drone Controller Phxnolx, you will remain aboveground and monitor our progress. You are also responsible for keeping Remote Base One informed with regular updates.”

  Phxnolx had returned the larger drone to the surface and stowed it. Because of its size, it could not traverse the serpentine shaft. Phxnolx removed one of the smaller multi-purpose drones from a storage bay and it currently hovered next to the two. Receiving new commands, it began lowering itself into the shaft. The drop was not straight, and it had needed to pause and reorient itself several times during the descent. Various holes opened off the primary shaft, and the drone verified that none of them contained Sarah prior to continuing down to the next level. Gareth and Sahnuli followed the drone closely. Since the shaft was not straight down, Gareth and Sahnuli had to stop and set pitons with loops at each jagged turn.

  Minutes ticked by as Sarah waited, her breathing the only sound in the space. Suddenly, with crackles of distortion, her radio speaker emitted a faint message.

  “Sarah, Gar. . .I. . .just barely hearing. . .peat your situa. . .”

  Sarah relaxed back and took a deep breath. She spoke loudly and worked to enunciate every word carefully. “I am at the bottom of a hole, no idea how deep. Left leg pinned at ankle by a rockfall. Right arm severely bruised but not broken. Primary computer destroyed. Suit indicates intact.”

  She stopped. The distortion dropped off as the small arm computer began compensating for the signal degradation.